Like My Brothers
by empressdreamer
Summary: Mikey draws from each of his brothers' unique abilities to face difficult battles. 2012- based. Completed!
1. Brave Like Leonardo

**Brave like Leonardo**

Michelangelo stared, petrified, at Tiger Claw, who was spitting and snarling at him. Even from a distance the tiger mutant towered over the smallest of the turtles. The way Tiger Claw's pair of slit eyes glow menacingly upon him was terrifying, his powerful muscles flexing as if he would maul Mikey there and then into Shredded (pun intended) turtle paper. Mikey could distinctly feel his arms tremble as he pulled out his nunchakus from his belt and prayed his bladder held on.

He rarely ever faced Tiger Claw on his own. The big mutant was usually Leo's combat partner. Not that it was an official understanding. It's just that whenever they fought with anyone from Shredder's group, Tiger Claw usually went for Leo, leaving Mikey to face Rahzar or some Foot. Tiger Claw was Shredder's right hand man and captain of his other henchmen, so naturally he would aim for the leader of the Turtles.

 _I am no match for him_ , Mikey thought fearfully, eyeing the muscles again. But Leo was still stuck in captivity and Raphael was out cold while Donatello was maneuvering between protecting Raph and trying to find the switch to open Leo's cell. There was no one else to hold the ground while Tiger Claw continued to advance.

Mikey's knees buckled slightly. He's not as skillful as Leo, he wouldn't know how to fight such a powerful enemy. He was afraid, so afraid. But he had no choice. If he ran now, Tiger Claw would come for Donnie and Raph next. He couldn't see another brother be caught by Shredder or his men. He needed his courage, he needed his bravery…

Thoughts flashed through his brain as he recalled Leo's face in the midst of a hopeless situations – when they were about to sink with Technodrome, when Kraang Prime threatened his life, when standing face-to-face with Shredder himself. No matter how bad the situation, Leo never backed down from an enemy. He would hold his head high and brandish his katanas and fight to the end. He was Leo, he was fearless, their Fearless Leader.

Mikey gripped his nunchakus tighter and took a deep breath. He can do this, for the sake of his brothers. If Leo wasn't there to be brave for them, Mikey will be the brave one for his eldest brother.

He watched Tiger Claw charge towards him and his heart pounded faster. _I'll be brave_ , Mikey thought silently.

Brave like Leo.


	2. Strong Like Raphael

**Strong like Raphael**

Michelangelo felt himself shoot out from the water and he yelped as he fell on his back, his nunchakus slipped from his grasp. His ears felt waterlogged and he tried to blink away the stars flashing before his eyes. There was a piercing pain on his left shoulder and he was sure that he was bleeding.

Somewhere in a distance, he could hear Xever's mocking laugh. There was a spray of water and Mikey was sure sushi-boy had jumped out of the ocean after spending a few minutes head-wrestling Mikey underwater. Xever may look comical, but he was also the most cunning of all of Shredder's lieutenants. Somehow he had managed to swing under Mikey's flaying nunchakus and stabbed the turtle on the shoulder, before kicking him in the head and stomach and caused him to fall to his knees.

Mikey knew already that Xever was cunning, but he was also brutal and sadistic. He and Raph were so similar in battle skills and tactics, except Raph would probably not skin Mikey alive anytime soon (unless he caught Mikey reading his comic books again). But Xever was a dangerous mutant, he had no sense of honour and Mikey wasn't sure if the mutant would not stab him again even when he's down.

 _I can't fight him now_ , Mikey thought weakly. His brothers were nowhere in sight, perhaps they too were fighting off their own swarm of Foot or one of the henchmen. Somehow the different building blocks beside the docks had separated Mikey from his brothers, and when he had accidentally fallen into the water he found himself being Xever's punching bag. It annoyed him at first, but now he barely had enough strength to form words in his mind.

Mikey tried to reach for his nunchakus, but the sound of metal ringing in the air told him that Xever had taken it. He was mocking Mikey now, calling him a baby. Xever wondered aloud as to why the other turtles would allow such a child to be part of the team. He was weak, the weakest link in the team. All they need is to bring him down, and the Turtles would be destroyed.

Mikey gritted his teeth at the words. He had always wondered that, maybe he was the weakest one. Having spent all his life in the shadows of his older brothers, he always took advantage of their protective sides, particularly Raph who would not let anyone – not even Splinter- beat Mikey up mindlessly. And here he was again, lying on his back, waiting for one of his brothers to come rescue him again.

Well, maybe not this time.

Balling his fingers into a fist, Mikey forced himself up to a sitting position. Raph would not take this lying down. He would not let some blasted _Fishface_ insult him and his family while he lay bleeding on the ground. And Mikey was done being the weakest link. He would not let his enemies get through to his family, and he certainly won't be the reason they managed to.

Xever's face drained out of colour as Mikey dragged himself up to his feet. The wound on his shoulder was sending white-hot pain through his body, but Mikey ignore it. Strength. He will find his strength. He remembered Raph's snarls and growls that intimidated even their worst enemies, he remembered the veins in Raph's arms as he gripped his sais, and Mikey glared at the nunchakus in Xever's hand.

As he took one heavy step after another towards a faltering Xever, Mikey steeled every bone of his body to soldier on with the impending fight. _I'll be strong_ , Mikey thought silently.

Strong like Raph.


	3. Smart Like Donatello

**Smart like Donatello**

Michelangelo ducked beneath the storm of purple lasers coming from every which way and aimed a kick at one of the Kraang-droids who was pointing its gun at him. The droid fell on it back and the maneuvering Kraang leapt out from the body to crawl away. Mikey managed to step on one of its tentacle, swung it around and toss it towards the wall like a Frisbee.

His brothers were still chained to the sinister-looking operating table, apparently out cold, wires attached to their bodies and a helmet on each of their heads. The machines surrounding them were still humming and whirring , and the flashes of light did not look pretty to Mikey. He managed a flip that took out five Kraang-droids and swung his nunchakus that knocked out the last two before he can turn his attention to the machines.

His older brothers had gone on a spying mission to one of the Kraang's known warehouses earlier that night. Mikey was left behind as a punishment for fiddling with the electric circuit that Donatello had just fixed, causing a blackout in their lair and nearly blowing up Donnie's lab in the process (he still wasn't sure how that could happen). When they had not returned four hours later, Splinter had (reluctantly) allowed him to go looking, with the condition that he would report back and not do anything foolish.

Naturally, he had to fall through the skylight and had twenty Kraang-droids on his shell in the process, so a phone call to Sensei was rather impossible.

Mikey eyed the machines warily. He tried to lift the helmet on Leonardo, but go electrocuted. He was no tech wizard but even he knew that this looked like some form of mind experiment not unlike the body switch incident that caused Raphael's mind to exchange with a Kraang.

 _I don't understand any of this_ , Mikey thought stupidly. Machines and wires were Donnie's expertise; he was the one usually fiddling with something even in the middle of a full-scale world invasion. Mikey could not touch a plug without blacking out the whole sewer (as demonstrated in the aforementioned grounding). On a normal Kraang machine, he would be more than happy to bang his way through the buttons, but not when his brothers' lives were potentially at stake.

His panic level rose when he heard a menacing beep coming from the machine closest to Donnie. Whatever he had to do, he needed to do it now. He glanced at Donnie's face, still serenely flat and emotionless. Donnie was smart, the smartest. He should have been the one manning this one instead of him.

Gripping the table full of buttons, Mikey took a deep breath. He had spent enough time in Donnie's lab, pestering Donnie to tell him every this and that and explain his inventions to Mikey. Surely he'd have caught something. He raked his brain for any information Donnie may have let slip, resisting the urge to simply reach for the socket on the wall and pull the plug.

He eyed the machine's control to try and find his bearing. There must be something on this keyboard that can stop the experiment and revive his brothers. He caught sight of a tiny red button at the very end, marked 'abort' in big bold letters. This may help. It is the most logical.

Mikey quickly reached for the button, knowing he may only have seconds to save his brother. Smart. _I need to be smart_ , Mikey thought silently.

Smart like Donnie.


	4. He is Michelangelo

Michelangelo cackled loudly as he jumped over Rahzar's shoulder, hit his spiky head with his fist and leapt off him before the dog-mutant could even register what was happening. Rahzar growled and tried to grapple for Mikey's feet, but the orange-banded turtle danced his way out of his grasp and laughed again. "Come on, _Rahzar_!" he mocked in a sing-song voice. "Are you that _slow_?"

Rahzar's angry howl momentarily distracted Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello from their own fights. Each turned as much as they dared to watch their youngest brother maneuver his way around the rooftop, jumping here and cartwheeling there. Mikey had always been the fastest of them all, his nimble body giving him speed that only their Sensei could match.

It struck Leo that there was no fear on Mikey's face. Raph saw that there was no feebleness in the swipes of his nunchakus and Don noted that there was no foolishness in his movements. Mikey was fighting like a true ninja, a powerful one, a force to be reckoned with, and it made the older Turtles wonder what could have caused such an improvement in Mikey's fighting skills.

They didn't know that Mikey, for all that he was easily distracted, was also observant. Mikey, whom had lived his life following his brothers' lead, was drawing his skills from their own spirit, their best qualities, and made them his own.

He drew his courage from Leonardo's unwavering resilience to do the right thing.

He drew his strength from Raphael's solid will to protect their family.

He drew his cleverness from Donatello's unquestionable wisdom to find answers.

He is Michelangelo, and he is the most carefree of all the Ninja Turtles. But with that cheeriness, he also learn to live by the virtues of his older brothers.


End file.
